Baby food is a $1.25 billion a year industry in the United States. Commercial baby foods are popular in the market. New parents spend an average of $300 on baby food during their infant's first year of life. Many parents spend much more. Baby foods are greatly overpriced compared to similar regular foods. Examples include applesauce and fruit juices, as well as diced fruits and vegetables for toddlers. The nutrient content and physical characteristics of those baby foods do not differ significantly from those for adults. However, the baby foods cost up to several times as much per unit weight. Baby foods for which there is no direct comparison in other grocery aisles are also priced very high. Commercial baby foods contain ingredients that are not nutritionally dense. These include: chemically modified food starch (often called Tapioca), flours, sugar, and corn syrup. In addition, commercially available baby food contains about 50% water, which is added during commercial processing.
Therefore, a better way of providing healthy and less expensive baby foods to babies is to make these foods at home. However, consumers lack adequate tools and skills for doing so. Traditionally, people use a blender to blend food after food has been cooked. This two-step process involves labor and skills and it is inconvenient and, sometimes, potentially unsafe to operate.
The very unique aspect of making baby foods is that the quantity of food to be cooked is usually small. Also, baby foods require both heating and blending for proper cooking. Blenders currently on the market are too large for making baby food and they are highly inconvenient for handling and for cleaning after use due to their large size. A smaller version blender is preferred for making baby foods. However, the cleaning after use of a smaller blender is a big issue to deal with due to its small size. On the other hand, how to incorporate heating functionality into a small blender remains a technological challenge, from structural design point of view. Safety for use is a further more important aspect to take care of.
Therefore, it remains desirable to provide a baby food maker that combines blending and heating to make healthy baby foods and to make healthy foods for children and adults, as well, that saves time and efforts, that can handle smaller portion of food more easily, that is safe to use, and that is convenient for cleaning after use, and that saves energy and cost for general public.